John Donne

- 1572-1631
- English poet and a cleric in the Church of England
- he is considered as a pre-eminent representative of the
metaphysical poets
- his works are noted for their strong, sensual stlye and
include love sonnets, religious themes, Latin translations
and elegies and etc.
- metaphor intensiveness
- he uses irony very often

The Ecstasy
- metaphysical poetryunusual verse forms, complex
figures of speech and surprising metaphorical conceits
- themelove
- like a pillow on a bed; set we twosimile
- love is not all about sex but it is important
- love=ecstasy (metaphor)
- he compares passionate love (sex) with religious, pure
love
- this love is full of mystery and magnificence
- throughout hi love poetry, Donne makes reference to the
refelection that appear in eyes and tearswith this motif,
Donne emphasizes that the lovers complete each other
- the reflection in the lovers’ eyes indicate a strong bond
between them

Batter my heart, three-person’d God

- themeGod, love
- three personholy trinity
- this poem is about religion and the love of God
- the poet emphasizes some words that he repeats but
there’s a contradiction in themGod can break, blow, burn
and make him new
- he loves God
- he wants to be with God, he asks Him to take him with him

The Good Morrow

- this is one of Donne’s best known poems
- themelove that isolates the lovers from reality but it is an
absolute intense experience
- the poem can be divided into 3 stanzas
- stanza 1the lover rejects the life he lived until he meets
his lover
- he describes it as chiildish and weak
- his past loves cannot be considered serious
- stanza 2it is a contrast, celebration of the present
- they mean the whole world to each other
- the „little room” is their own world, and the outer world is
rejected under the symbols of maps and discoverers
- what really means to him ishere and now
- stanza 3perfect sincerity of the lovers
- he hopes for the future
- the perfect love is immortal and it also makes the lovers
immortal

At the round Earth’s imagined corners blow

- this is one of the holy sonnets that deals with death
- apocalyptic language
- four corners of the world, but now we know that the Earth
is round
- Petrarchan sonnet formoctave and a sestet
- Donne imagines what if death souls will somehow re-
inhabit their old bodies
- he imagines where death bodies lay and how they died
- some, of course will not be deadthey will still be alive
when Christ returns
- but it will be too late to ask for forgiveness of sins ont hat
day
- the sonnet finishes with an apparent paradoxhe asks
God to teach him how to repent, because he does not
know that naturally
- this poem’s aim is to make readers stop and think about
life and love